


Alternate Ending, because Robinson was a bastard

by sodium_chloride



Category: Journey To The End Of The Night
Genre: M/M, Madelon is a bitch, Spoilers, it wasn't a very good pistol, the original ending was terrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 08:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14209071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodium_chloride/pseuds/sodium_chloride
Summary: Robinson actually DOESN'T die





	Alternate Ending, because Robinson was a bastard

Ferdinand Bardmau is a French veteran from WW1, who is lost after an accident on the front. He dates two women (both of whom dump him because of his PTSD) after a stay in a mental hospital for shellshock. He then travels to a French colony in Africa (around modern-day Cameroon), where he makes advances in his pessimistic view of the world. Than, after getting deathly sick, he travels to America for work (where he meets and breaks up with another girlfriend), then back to postwar-France. After Robinson’s failed murder attempt, he travels too Toulouse, then back to France. There, he takes over the Vinghy ental Institute.

Ferdinand, after the war, is a nihilist. He has no care for those around him and what they’re doing, save for Robinson; even then, he barely cares at all. Most likely this is due to his PTSD, where his ‘fits’ (for example, screaming “They’re coming for you! All of you!”) repeal most romantic and platonic partners. He sees no point in the human existence and the vye for money and things, even masturbation has lost it’s feeling and meaning. He doesn’t care anymore. As long as he gets his francs and food, the world could burn for all he cares.

This continuation happens after Madelon (Leon Robinson’s ex) gets mad at him and shoots him in the abdomen on their way home from Carnival. Originally, Robinson dies and the book comes to a close; I was unsatisfied. I wanted a happy ending, or at least one where Robinson and Ferdinand can live together in peace. And hence, this.

\---  
But we kept on going. Robinson slumped down on me, sideways, jerking and gasping: “Hep! Hep!” And more of the same: “Hep! Hep!” The driver must have heard.

I feel as if a blind rage has come over my eyes; it is bright, burning. Madelon’s face is glowing in the given light, her eyes squinted at the pistol... it made me fill with rage, a rage unbearable to the extent in which I could not handle it.

“Get out!” I roar, kicking Madelon square in the stomach; the cab door opens and she falls out. She runs, over that same blasted swampland and into darkness. I’ll never see Madelon again.

Robinson’s breath is coming in gasps. The cabbie has stopped in front of the Vinghy, and he gives us a curt nod. The ride is free of charge…he says it’s a good deed.

I wince. Robinson’s face is pale, his eyes shut tight and making pitiful noises at the back of his throat. He is clenching his teeth, three bullets really do take it out of a man. I can see the blood seeping through his clothes; it stains my hand, scarlet gleams in the moonlight. I press my handkerchief firmly onto the three bullet holes; he is lucky they are not deep, at most he will have some deep scars...that is, if Robinson survives the blood loss.

And for the first time in the world, I care more about a man than anything else in the world. His life is in my hands- the infamous Leon! His body is at my mercy; it is up to myself if he lives or dies.

Quickly hauling Robinson up into the main room, I grit my teeth like I did in that blasted trench. The fuckhead! Why’d he have to get himself shot? He could have done any number of things to leave Madelon, instead of dragging his sorry son-of-a-bitch ass back to Paris and being stalked by a crazy woman! And now look!

“Careful- oh!” One of the nurses, the one with nice legs, had come down, conveniently carrying tweezers and gauze, as well as a bowl of water. She set her items down next to Robinson, who was starting to fade. He does that sometimes. It was nothing to worry about; for he had gone through a multitude of things...getting shot was not at the top of the list.

Now, I look down at Robinson’s body. My blue handkerchief was now red, a dark unsettling hue that I had seen drench the coats of soldiers on the battlefield. ‘Twas a horror to be seen, and I had to clench my teeth in order not to hurl over my patient. Such things must not baffle me, even now; I am a doctor!

Working quickly, I extracted the bullets carefully. What a lass! Some slut, that Madelon, to shoot a man who didn’t want her anymore! And what’s furthermore was that they hadn’t shagged either! Even her accusation from the numerous letters about Leon and I shacking up was baffling...I had never met a woman so determined. Then again, both Leon and I had no taste for sex with another male. I think.

I found myself finished with Leon, and in the process of cleaning and dressing his wound. Why had I bothered anyways? Wasn’t Leon the fool to blame here, he was the one who tried to murder Grandma Herenoullie...and I with him. He had sinned, and so have I..two more men who have sinned in the world, two more unlovable bastards.

Now the process was finished. Thank God the bullets were only a centimetre in, it wasn’t a very powerful pistol. Child’s play, perhaps. But still, Leon’s eyes were closed. At least he hadn’t lost as much blood, I thought wryly as I helped the nurse clean up. A little saving lives gives a man a bit more to live for in this miserable world.

“I’ll take your instruments back upstairs, sir,” The nurse said, shooing away one of the loonies that lived at the Institution. They shouldn’t be up at this hour; I was waiting for the moment when I got an angry letter from a family saying I had let their dear lunatic stay up past bedtime. Oh well. “Have a good night.”

I was pretty sure she was going to pass out from so much blood. It was probably to much for her Polish eyes, and out they go! She walks away like a horse that had just been whipped. There’s a reason why she was not a doctor and I was.

The stained carpet could wait, no one would care if it had a bloodstain or not. After all, this was a ‘mental institution’ and there were definitely hellbent inmates lounging about the place, some of whom I would not like to meet at this hour.

So instead, I haul Robinson up the stairs (I, nor the nurse, could be bothered to retrieve a stretcher) and into my own bedroom. Such gratitude, especially for someone such as myself; alas, this was a special occasion and Leon did not deserve to sleep on a cot in the dining room. My own room was the only room left, seeing as the other lad had taken Bayton’s room.

“Nice and easy, now.” I mumble as I gently lower Leon onto my own bed, on the far left side. Making sure his airways are secure, I gently use the only extra pillow to prop his head and then his torso. I hardly recall when I had treated a man with such fondness, even little Berbert; he was a child, however. Children must be treated with the utmost kindness and softness, then they will not scare away.

My bed linens are kept clean and pressed, it made me have a sense of cleanliness after changing into nightclothes. Leon himself was without a shirt, however his trousers were bound to stain the sheets. That wasn’t to much of a worry to me; I’d reckon Leon would come to his senses early tomorrow morning. Until then, I have to keep watch by his side if any complications come up.

So I settle in next to sleeping Leon, opening a book and reading by the streetlight that came in from the window.

**Author's Note:**

> Whelp. Here we are.


End file.
